


Past, Present, Future

by SusieBeeca



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Ageing, Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia, F/M, Future, Hospital Setting, Immortality, Old Age, Other, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 16:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14938112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SusieBeeca/pseuds/SusieBeeca
Summary: Many years have passed, and Lars finds himself having to deal with the devastating repercussions of immortality.





	Past, Present, Future

“Sadie.”

He poked at her shoulder, and watched as she stirred. The flickering of her eyelids suggested she was going back to sleep, so he put a hand on her arm and shook her til she shivered herself awake, blinking up at him.

“Votes are in,” he said with a grin, gesturing to the television, and held the clicker out to her. “Wanna look?”

She eyed the controller, but feebly pushed it away. “Ugh. Don’t tell me---yet another stale pale male?”

“No!” He wanted to un-mute the TV, but instead pulled the clicker back and placed it on his lap. “It’s official now. ’President Maheswaran’! Can you believe it?”

It looked like she was trying to smile, but her head drooped, her mouth all gummy. _“Hmm…”_

He dropped the clicker onto her bedside table and ripped a few tissues out from the box. As he dabbed them against the corner of her mouth, Lars did his best to grin and gently nudged the silvery curls off Sadie’s forehead. “Talk about a combo breaker, huh?”

She chuckled, nodding against his knuckles. “You’re… you’re telling me! I thought we’d never get a President who’s a person of colour.” She horked, and smacked his hand away when he lifted a tissue. “Shame that Barry what’s-his-name never got…”

The sentence got chopped off under her coughing. She had to sit upright, curling her body like a fiddlehead, expelling phlegm as her lungs hacked and heaved.  
Lars had his hand on her arm as she leaned back, and when she settled on the pillow, he leaned down to plant a kiss on her knuckles. “Barry did get voted in,” he said as gently as he could. “About four years ago. He, uh, wasn’t the best in the world, but he paved the way for… well… a new kind of government.”

Sadie grinned, creasing the wrinkles around her eyes. “The times, they are a-changin’!”

Then… the sparkle in her eyes dimmed almost as fast as it had appeared. 

Lars shuffled in his seat. “Hey. Something wrong?”

“I just…” She tugged at the bedsheets. “I’ve always wanted to see a change in this world, and, uh… and yet…”

He twisted his mouth from side to side. “Yeah?”

But, just like that, it was gone---whatever gloom had clawed at her face dissolved, and a simple, empty smile returned to her face. “Nothing.”

“Uh.” He looked down at his knees. “Okay.”

An arthritic hand came to rest on his, and Lars’ head jerked up. For one precious little moment he felt like he was looking into the happy, clear eyes of the woman he used to love.

But then she blinked.

It was gone.

“You’re such a dear for coming to visit me,” she said hoarsely, squeezing his fingers. “I don’t think I caught your name, though…?”

“Don’t think I dropped it,” he squeezed out. “It’s, uh, Lars.”

“Lars, yes. Of course.” She shuffled around in her hospital bed and pulled the sheets up to the edge of her calico nightgown. “You know… you remind me of someone. I hope you don’t mind me saying it, but he was a jerk with a heart of gold. Deep down inside… he was a sweetheart.”

“Mm-hm.”

“He’d have to be in his seventies by now,” she went on as she shuffled back into the mattress. “But you’d be the spitting image of him, I swear…”

“Sure, Sadie.”

“Well, excuse YOU, young man!” she tittered, wagging a reproachful finger. “It’s ‘Mrs. Miller’ if you please.”

He snorted.

“I’m sorry to be so formal, but, heavens, I hardly _know_ you!”

The cold punch to his gut tried to work itself up to his face, but he didn’t let his smile falter. “Oh yeah? What about ‘Miz Killer’?”

Her face drifted from slack to foggy. “Oh… I haven’t been called that in awhile.”

The lights dimmed and then brightened again, signaling the end of visiting hours. Lars got to his feet, kicking the chair aside, and handed her the tiny vial he’d been keeping warm in his pocket. “I, uh, I gotta go,” he mumbled as he pressed it into her open palm. “But I’ll see you tomorrow. Remember to take your ‘serum’, eh?”

“Of course,” she said absently as she fingered the little tube; Steven’s spit and tears were swirling around inside, clinging to the walls like Lars clung to the last bit of hope he had inside him. _What doesn’t kill us just prolongs the inevitable_ , he remembered saying once, so many decades ago, and those words came back to stab and slice at him as he watched the prune-faced old lady bring the vial up to her mouth.

“A woman President,” she said lowly, her eyes drifting down. “And a woman of colour, at that! I never thought I’d see that in my lifetime.”

“Me neither.” Before he could stop himself, he leaned down and kissed the top of her head, right where her graying hair met her skin. “Just goes to show you how little we know about the future.”

Her pallid cheeks flushed, and she giggled. “Aren’t you just the sweetest!”

“Yeah. Sure.” He made sure to pull the blanket up around her shoulders before giving her another kiss, and then turned to the door. One hand on the doorframe, he hesitated… then, catching his breath again, he glanced over his shoulder. “See you soon?”

She flashed him that smile that belied all her years, and before it melted away again, she murmured “Of course, Player One.”

**Author's Note:**

> Dementia runs in my family. I've lost several loved ones to it, and I'm in the process of losing more. Thank you for reading!


End file.
